so, this is christmas?

by punk monkey

i love john lennon, and his song "so this is christmas."  for me, it strikes home at a very core level - at a level that says, "get off your ass and live your faith."  before i get a flood of emails telling me that it is not a "christian" song, and that lennon was not a "christian" let me say - i don't care.  i love the song, and it does speak to us about our faith - or our lack of faith - 

So this is Christmas
And what have you done?
Another year over
And a new one just begun

as we get closer to the day we celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior let us ask that simply question - "what have i done?"  did you feed the hungry?  did you speak out against the violence?  did you house a person in need?  did you love your neighbor as yourself?  did you put no other "god" ahead of God?  did you spend too much time at work and not enough with the kids, or your "other?"  did you get out and clean a park. or a stream?  did you sit on your rump and complain about everything that was wrong, but you did nothing to help solve the problems?

And so this is Christmas
I hope you have fun
The near and the dear one
The old and the young.

did you visit the elderly this year?  did you do all you could for those in need?  did you truly go beyond yourself and into the lives of others?

A very Merry Christmas
And a Happy New Year
Let's hope it's a good one
Without any fear

too many people live in fear - fear of war, fear of pain, fear of parents, fear of spouses, fear of hunger, fear of those they live around.  what have you done to relieve the fears of others?

And so this is Christmas
For weak and for strong
For rich and the poor ones
The world is so wrong

"the world is do wrong" - and that is so true.  how many of us live our faith to be a faith that transforms the world around us?  do we blend in with the culture around us?  do we stand out in a negative way, or a positive way?  can we truly say that we are not of this world?  that your faith has transformed you into something new and exciting?

And so Happy Christmas
For black and for white
For yellow and red ones
Let's stop all the fight.

the birth of Christ is for all - all people.  if we see that we are to share our faith with the world around us, fighting becomes silly and wrong.  your faith should move you past the point of fight, and into the point of love.

lennon may not be christian, but sometimes it takes those outside the church to open the eyes of those inside the church.  we talk a good game, we even shout a good game - but we do not live a good game - in fact, we fail big time.

i never liked the christian cop-out that "we are human" so we always fail, because that says that the power of God is weak, and that our lives will not be changed by His power.  the problem is not that we are human; the problem is that we do not desire to truly change.